mauvaises graines - Chapitre 8
After the initial surprise, terror suddenly welled up in Ma Junnan's eyes, and his body trembled.
Xu Haicheng was also slightly taken aback, not understanding why Ma Junnan would do such a thing. Although he didn't understand, he felt a vague unease in his heart.
The other three also noticed the unusual situation, glancing at Ma Junnan and then at Xu Haicheng. A moment of silence fell over the room, then Ma Junnan's lips moved, and he spoke: "You...you still want to...kill me?"
The complex meaning conveyed by these words left the three outsiders speechless with astonishment. They then began to imagine, and although no one spoke, their gazes toward Xu Haicheng changed.
The lights were too bright, making it impossible to hide even the slightest change in expression. Although Xu Haicheng tried his best to remain calm, his face still paled slightly as he asked, "Professor Ma, why would I kill you?"
Ma Junnan was a little surprised: "You...don't remember?"
Xu Haicheng remained silent, hoping he would continue, yet also fearing he would.
"You really don't remember? In the cave, you told everyone to bend down and stick their necks out..." Ma Junnan stared intently at Xu Haicheng, his face full of vigilance.
"My memories end here..." Xu Haicheng's gaze blurred, as if falling into an unknown space. He remembered standing by the dark pool, clutching Fang Li's letter in his hand, overwhelmed with sorrow. Suddenly, he heard cries of alarm coming from the cave where Liang Ping was cremated, so he quickly turned back with Xi Erhu.
The squad leader said something flew out of Professor Liang Ping's body; its eyes were bloodshot. He suspected it was a ghostly poison, and knowing it possessed people's necks, he told everyone to lower their heads and expose their necks. Just as he was about to examine it, a dark gun barrel suddenly emerged from their lowered heads. Before he could even see what it was, a burst of bullets shot out of the barrel. His memory stopped there; the next thing he could recall was him lying on the cold, damp ground, on the verge of death.
Part One, Section 16: Chapter Three, Part Three of the Formation of Calamity (4)
Ma Junnan remained staring intently at Xu Haicheng, his expression shifting as if analyzing the truthfulness of his words. After a while, he said, "You really don't remember that ghostly Gu attaching itself to your neck?"
Xu Haicheng was startled: "What...did you say?"
"Because of my leg injury, I couldn't stand, so I sat on the ground. I clearly saw a small white bat fly out of Professor Liang Ping's body... its eyes were bright red. It was very fast. After flying out of Professor Liang's body, it flew straight to the top of the black hole. When you told everyone to look down, it suddenly swooped down. A soldier also saw it and immediately fired, but he missed it. I saw it pounce on your neck..." He emphasized as he repeated, "I saw it pounce on your neck, and then you started firing wildly."
Xu Haicheng stared at Ma Junnan, his dark face now paler than paper, his eyes seemingly about to bleed, his body swaying slightly, as if he no longer had the strength to stand. Pan Xiaolu, standing beside him, couldn't bear to watch and reached out to support him, but he pushed her away.
"You fired wildly, and everyone, not knowing what was happening, returned fire, which led to a chaotic battle, with blood everywhere..." Ma Junnan murmured, as if he were back in that moment, with gunfire like rain and blood splattering everywhere.
Xu Haicheng couldn't listen anymore. He turned and ran outside, swaying and staggering.
Pan Xiaolu followed without hesitation. She watched him almost trip and fall as he ran out of the Nanpu City Psychological Rehabilitation Center, watched him run red lights in a panic and be chased and cursed by a taxi driver, watched his tall back with his shoulders slumped... She knew that he was in a state of utter turmoil at the moment, no less than a collapsing building, so she didn't call out to him, but just followed him from a distance, walking through street after street, until Xu Haicheng stopped in front of a public television screen.
A line of text was flashing on the television screen: Eight days until the Mansi Cultural Festival.
Ten seconds later, the text flashed and disappeared, replaced by a dazzling array of images: eerie Nuo masks, a floor plan of the ancient tomb with seven stars surrounding the moon, welcoming effigies at the tomb entrance, and a star map in the seventh burial chamber…
The image was reflected in Xu Haicheng's pupils, but it couldn't enter his mind; his thoughts had already flown back more than ten years. At that time, he was sixteen years old, still in the orphanage, sitting with Fang Li among the canna lilies, telling her that he wanted to apply to the police academy.
Fang Li asked him why?
He said he wanted to catch the bad guys and bring all criminals to justice.
Fang Li smiled as she held his hand and said, "I believe you will become the best policeman."
The words still echoed in his ears, yet his hands were already stained with the blood of innocent people. Xu Haicheng grinned, revealing a hideous smile. At the end of his road, he often wondered what Xiao Zhuang, the hitman in "The Killer," felt when he reached his demise, unable to even fulfill his last wish. Was he, too, reaching the end of his police career?
Completely bewildered, Xu Haicheng was oblivious to someone creeping closer. The man reached his side, grabbed his collar, and hurled him into the nearby bushes. Caught off guard, Xu Haicheng tumbled into the undergrowth like a rag doll. Disoriented and disoriented, he lacked his usual agility, struggling like an ordinary person. The man leaped up, sat on him, and began raining blows upon him, yelling, "Give me back my brother's life! Give me back my brother's life!"
The pain brought Xu Haicheng to his senses slightly. Looking at the man's ferocious expression, he prepared to retaliate, but the man's face resembled someone he knew. "Who is your brother?"
"He Aijun, my brother's name is He Aijun, you killed him..."
A flash of lightning seemed to strike his mind, clear and bright. Looking at the man's face again, he instantly remembered him: He Aijun, the leader of the elite team sent to the Jingyun Mountain rescue expedition. Xu Haicheng sighed inwardly, his raised fist going limp, no longer able to withstand the fury of his punches.
The man was completely blinded by hatred, like a madman. He grabbed Xu Haicheng's forehead and slammed his head to the ground, yelling, "Die!"
Xu Haicheng felt a piercing pain at the back of his head, followed by a headache that spread throughout his entire head, as if a thousand worms were crawling inside, or as if a whirlpool was constantly churning inside his skull. His vision blurred, and he began to lose his hearing, vaguely hearing a furious shout from a great distance: "Don't move! Hands up!"
It was a woman's voice, it sounded like Pan Xiaolu.
A vague thought flashed through Xu Haicheng's mind before he completely lost consciousness. In his hazy state, time rewound more than ten years. Under the high wall of the orphanage's backyard, sunlight shone like shattered gold, and canna lilies swayed in the breeze. He and Fang Li sat below.
Fang Li smiled as she held his hand and said, "You will definitely become the best policeman."
The best police!
A sarcastic smile appeared on Xu Haicheng's lips as he lay unconscious.
Part One, Section 17: Chapter Four, Part One of the Abiding Tribulations (1)
Chapter Four: The First Tribulation
I've witnessed all sorts of ways to die, and all sorts of corpses. I've pieced together dismembered bodies, stuffed intestines that had spilled out of a car accident back into the stomach, and seen worms swarming out of the five orifices of a corpse that had decomposed inside... But what truly chills me is this seemingly ordinary death of his...
(Excerpt from "Police Detective's Diary")
He didn't know how long he had been adrift in the darkness before Xu Haicheng regained consciousness, his head feeling as if it had been run over by a car. The faint smell of formaldehyde lingered in his nostrils. When he wasn't sick, the smell was pungent, but when he was sick, it felt comforting. His heart calmed down slightly as he heard soft whispers in the distance. Although he couldn't make out what they were saying, it was still reassuring.
He slowly opened his eyes. A dim white lamp hung on the white ceiling, and a moth was struggling to fly towards it. Turning his gaze, he saw two people standing by the bed. The one with his back to him, wearing a white coat, was naturally the doctor, and the one facing him was Pan Xiaolu.
Seeing him wake up, Pan Xiaolu's face lit up with joy, and she softly called out, "Captain Xu, you're awake."
Xu Haicheng nodded, his brows furrowing involuntarily. Even such a slight movement had aggravated the pain in his head. Then, recalling Ma Junnan's words, he felt the pain was nothing. Why didn't He Aijun's brother just kill him? Suddenly, he felt utterly exhausted, life seemed meaningless, and he didn't want to speak or see anyone. Just as he was about to close his eyes to rest, the doctor turned around, looking at him reproachfully, and said, "You, Captain Xu, are really courting death! I told you to come back for a check-up every two weeks, but you've been gone for a month and a half, and you've even injured your head!"
"Hello, Director Wu." Xu Haicheng forced a smile. Director Wu was a neurosurgeon and his attending physician during his recent hospitalization, and had taken great care of him.
Director Wu held up two CT scan images to the light, and the shape of the skull immediately became visible in the dark images. Pan Xiaolu curiously leaned closer to examine them, and seeing a circular shadow on the right side of the brain in the CT scan, she was secretly surprised and asked, "Is this... a brain tumor?"
Director Wu shook his head: "It's a bullet."
"What?" Pan Xiaolu exclaimed in shock, turning to look at Xu Haicheng. Was there a bullet in his head?
Xu Haicheng's expression remained unchanged, as if he were listening to someone else's story.
Director Wu said, "There is a mild concussion and a small amount of intracranial congestion, which is not a big problem. However, the bullet has been slightly displaced. Although there is no indication of any pathological changes yet, you must be careful and prevent this from happening again." He stared intently at Xu Haicheng with a very serious expression.